The Phase7.org project is based on the bookSTANDARDS THAT MEASURE SOLUTIONS:A Guide to Solving 21st Century Problemsby David L. Paul. The book was was published in March 2014 and is available at Amazon.com.

It focuses on answering the question: How can we make the world a better place?

It is easy to propose ideas to answer this question. Actually evaluating, funding and implementing practical solutions is quite difficult. The book develops a methodology to peel away the complexities surrounding this task. It divides the evaluation and implementation process into standard phases, steps, tasks and grading systems. However the book is based on observation and logic, not research.

A project to begin validating the methodology (The Northwestern Impossible Challenge - website ISEN.nu/nic15) was started at Northwestern University in October 2015. The projects goal is to evaluate the benefits and feasibility of implementing specific solutions to complex global problems. Climate Change (global warming) was selected as the first problem to work on. Nine multidisciplinary student teams of 4 to 6 members each were created and given four plausible mitigating solutions to the global warming problem to evaluate. Each team was asked to prepare an initial "first cut" analysis to determine if one of these solutions might be feasible and beneficial. They also were asked to determine what issues were likely to be relevant and the likelihood of resolving these issues. This was to be done using a standardized evaluation and grading system to produce grades for each solution in each of the following areas: